Something that baffles me...

[Rezildur]

Yeah I didn't really understand why he built the barracks outside his main but not really that close to my base? lol. If you are going to build it so close to your own base, why not just build it inside?

[JackhammerIV]

Yeah I didn't really understand why he built the barracks outside his main but not really that close to my base? lol. If you are going to build it so close to your own base, why not just build it inside?

Basically the map is pretty far from the bases. By putting it there it shortens the distance walked but keeps it close enough to his main so that if it fails he can lift the the barracks back and only lose the depots. It's almost a "Maka" rax (from GSL where the player Maka makes a second rax at his natural even though the amount of time spent walking by marine was barely cut down). Truthfully he could have made all depots in main around the mineral line in case you proxy gate zealot rush and made the barracks at the top of the ramp to his natural to improve on the terran's style.:P

But the more common tactic on jungle basin would be he makes depot and rax to block his ramp at main then makes a second rax across the gap from your destructible rocks. So his second rax is right outside your ramp almost but you can't see it even if you scout out your destructible rocks and place a pylon there. Then you see him move out with like 3 marines from his base (if you left a probe at the bottom of his main ramp) and you think ok...weird. Then suddenly when it reaches your ramp it's 6 marines. That's the best way for terran to completely surprise you but yeah....most terrans don't do that in my experience. Even though they can hide a second rax very easily they always try to proxy the first rax.:P

[Rezildur]

I think part of the reason I also have such a hard time with terran is that I have never played them, other than the campaign. I used to be a zerg player, so I know what they are capable of. Protoss, well, I can gauge what they have against what I have and monetary possibilities. Terran, I'm still figuring that out.

[JackhammerIV]

Well if you already know what terran is capable of against zerg it's pretty much the same in PvT. The same rushes they do against zerg they can use against protoss. The timings won't really change. You only need to have a general sense of what the race can do at each point in time to be able to play against them. You don't need to know the intricate details of each race. You just need to know the details of the race you play and the weaknesses certain builds have.

EDIT: Plus even Blizzard acknowledges early game PvT terran has advantage and late game protoss has advantage. It's a crazy hit or miss matchup. Terran tries to kill you off quickly before certain tech gets up (storm/colossus) while protoss tries really hard to get that tech before terran hits. Then once the protoss has storm tech specifically it's a real game ender.

[MulletBen]

It's a crazy hit or miss matchup.

Still not nearly as hit or miss as ZvZ.

[Rezildur]

Been trying out a build that starts off with mostly zealots and sentries, and techs Charge pretty quickly. Been working out well. I'll post a replay of a good game.

[Rezildur]

Well, it was working well for me today, until this game.
Suggestions are welcome, I felt kind of crippled the entire game.

[JackhammerIV]

You were dead for sure at like 13mins when you lost your big army and he still had a large army left. Here's a bunch of reasons why you lost. A lot of times you got supply blocked. The terran got a base up way way earlier than you. You stopped probe production with like 15 probes on minerals and you only realised once your expo was going up that you didn't have enough probes. First time looking I saw 4 gate with chargelots and like 15 drones on minerals and i thought you were going to do a rush. But you didn't.... Plus you had too many unit producing structures off one base.

After you get like your main unit producing structures off one base (4 gate/3 gate robo) helps to like make 2 pylons at a time. In the later game it'll be like 3-4 pylons at a time. You were doing a bit too much off of one base. Chargelots+robo tech. You didn't really use the robo much. Considering you got charge so fast definitely make more sentries. Like tons of sentries. Plus you got early second gas so definitely lots of sentries.

And with this composition of zealot and sentry don't defend on top of your ramp once you have more than like 4 zealots. Like if you notice when he moved up your ramp only like 3 out of 9 of your zealots could actually attack. Move your zealots and sentries to the wide choke at the natural. Invest in hallucination for scouting. Spread your sentries out so they won't all lose energy from one EMP shot. Plus zealot+sentry is a good composition to expo after 1 or 3 gateways. Against terran don't put any buildings close to the ramp. Preferrably make walls around your mineral line so terran drops are easier to deal with. Spread pylons out on your base to spot drops. Remember probe production if you're not gonna do a rush. And 4 gate+robo is too much off one base. Either 3 gate+robo or 4 gate. Or a crazy all in 5 gateway.

If you're going to get zealot with charge and lots of sentries consider going hallucination tech a bit early in the game to scout then high templar and a forge with some cannons for detection. Like a really fast hallucination and going a few early sentries can let you scout out if you really need an obs for cloaked banshees. Be sure to use your sentries to forcefield. Like to stop some of his units from retreating so you can kill them all. Or to cut army in half etc.

It was a bit unnecessary pulling off so many drones to attack his small army. Wait a bit man. He was just targetting a pylon. He might have decided to run after that worried when he saw 3 completed gateways that you had new units out and was waiting for him to come up the ramp to trap and kill him. If he runs up then yeah with the army you had then take some probes off to help attack. But even if that happened the amount you took off was too much. Try to keep probes mining constantly. Doesn't help in the long run pulling off 11 probes from mining when like 6 would probably have been enough.

You let your nexus energy accumulate after the first chronoboost on nexus. You could have chronoboosted probes more and earlier. Your scouting probe you should put at the xel naga especially on such close spawn locations. If you see a marine come to take it then put that probe at the wide choke of your natural. And the forcefield placement don't panic too much. Try to place it quickly and precisely blocking the ramp (this is the hardest skill to master as protoss). That's another reason i have a probe at xel naga or in front of his base or in front of my ramp a bit (guess you'd call it 2-3 hexes in front). I'll see a bunch of units come and kill the probe instantly jump to my units hotkey and prep the forcefield with perfect placement. The moment he comes i decide quickly...can i kill it i.e. forcefield behind him or i can't kill it i.e. forcefield and trap most of his army outside.

EDIT: Be a bit more active with the observer. Like shift click it to go over the cliff by expo of terran and then wander into the main and check out his production buildings/army.

[Rezildur]

Lol. Part of what I love about this game is the high pace and attention that it commands. At the same time it is what really stresses me out!! For example, I am often reluctant to attack early in the game because I don't know good ways to attack and continue production back home ( probes I know, just click the hotkey) but once you get warpgate, you have to go back to base to place them, or place pylons, and I'm really afraid of leaving my forces out on the field unmanned even for a second.

So that is really what I would love a lesson in, is multitasking attacking and econ.

[JackhammerIV]

Mostly it's timing. Just before I engage opponent's army with my army I make sure I have a lot of supply left to use and then warp in one cycle. Then I attack him. If at any point I realise I don't need to micro anything then I quickly jump back to base warp warp warp warp. Back to battle. Takes like 2secs max off battle.

If the battle is really close then just focus on it. The moment you retreat just jump back and warp in units. I've been trying to get into a habit of assigning a function key to the camera view of where I want to warp things in then using that to warp in. Need to use it a lot more to get used to.:P Important thing to multitask attacking and econ is supply. If you wanna do a quick poke then enough supply for one cycle of production is alright. If you're thinking you wanna make a big push then maybe have enough supply for 2-3 production cycles.

Plus when I jump back to warp in I just do it unconciously. Very used to warping in all stalkers quickly.:P My fingers love that S key.:P LOL.